Ewout Steenbergen, CFO of online travel company Booking Holdings, said the company is pursuing "lean operations" through a major transformation program that includes using AI to automate internal processes.

The transformation program, announced in November of last year, aims to achieve savings of up to $450 million by the end of 2027 through layoffs and other cost-cutting measures, and to reinvest some of the freed-up capital into AI projects and other initiatives. Details can be found in the company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

"We are making good progress on the implementation of these plans," Steenbergen said in an exclusive interview last month. The company estimates it will achieve $150 million in savings this year.

Booking, known as the Priceline Group before its 2018 rebranding, is currently the world's largest online travel agency by sales, according to Pitchbook data, offering booking and payment services for hotels and alternative accommodations, flights, car rentals, restaurant reservations, cruises, experiences, and other vacation packages. It operates multiple branded travel booking websites, including Booking.com, Agoda, OpenTable, Rentalcars.com, Kayak, and Momondo.

As part of the transformation efforts, Booking is investing in AI for automating functions such as phone customer service, Steenbergen said. "Generative AI can do it better," he said. "Users don't have to wait in long queues and can get information faster."

The organization is also exploring ways to automate processes in the finance department, Steenbergen said. This includes using generative AI to analyze competitors' earnings call transcripts and disclosure documents more quickly.

This efficiency initiative comes as the company is also closely monitoring uncertainties in the macroeconomic environment—since President Donald Trump returned to the White House for a second term, the U.S. has introduced large-scale tariff announcements and other federal policy changes.

"Since we are a service-oriented company, tariffs will not have a direct impact on our business," Steenbergen said. "But if consumer confidence declines, there could be an indirect impact."

Steenbergen said that so far, demand for Booking's services in most regions around the world "remains resilient," but the U.S. market appears to be showing signs of weakness.

According to results released at the end of April, Booking reported first-quarter revenue of $4.8 billion, up 8% year-over-year. Both room nights and total bookings grew 7% compared to the same period last year.

Steenbergen said on the April 29 earnings call that room night growth was high single digits in Europe and Asia, while the U.S. was only low single digits.

The finance chief told investors on the call that Booking has adjusted its full-year total bookings and revenue growth expectations to "mid-to-high single digits" on a constant currency basis. He cited "increased geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty" as the reason. The company had previously expected full-year growth of "at least 8%."

"While Booking's network is one of the strongest in the industry, its demand is unlikely to be immune if U.S. tariff policies lead to weaker consumer spending," Morningstar senior equity analyst Dan Wasiolek wrote in a client note on April 30.

Steenbergen told CFO Dive that Booking is well-positioned to navigate the risks in the current environment thanks to the ongoing transformation program. "From a cost management perspective, we are pursuing lean operations," he said.

In a securities filing in November of last year, Booking announced an "organizational change" program, including process modernization and workforce streamlining. The filing stated: "We believe these efforts will improve operating expense efficiency, enhance organizational agility, free up resources that can be reinvested to improve the traveler and partner experience, and position the company more favorably for long-term growth."

The company provided more details in another securities filing in December, stating that the program would ultimately reduce annual run-rate expenses by approximately $400 million to $450 million over the next three years. The company said most of the savings are expected to come from "changes across our brands, such as process and systems modernization, procurement optimization, reducing our real estate footprint, and an expected workforce reduction of approximately one-third."

The disclosures did not specify how many positions the company would cut. According to the 10-K filing submitted in February, Booking had approximately 24,300 employees globally as of December 2024.

"We launched the transformation program last year because it was a good time to step back and look at the state of the organization," Steenbergen said. "The complexity of the organization has increased significantly."